Republicans are slightly more enthusiastic ahead of November’s general election, edging out Democrats, according to a new survey.
In the poll, released Thursday by Gallup, 59 percent of Republicans said they are more enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming election than in previous years. That is four points higher than the 55 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, who said they felt the same.
Democrats were more likely to say they are less enthusiastic about voting than Republicans — 42 to 35 percent, respectively. However, both parties are less enthusiastic about voting now compared to four years ago — as a rematch of 2020 between President Biden and former President Trump becomes more likely — the survey found.
At this point in a presidential primary, Democrats’ highest enthusiasm was in 2008 when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran against former President Obama, who was a senator at the time, as they each sought to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Americans in general become more enthusiastic about voting as Election Day gets closer, with the “more enthusiastic” percentage hitting roughly 65 percent in early November and the “less enthusiastic” number dropping to around 23 percent, per the poll. This has been true in each election since 2004, pollsters said, except for 2016 when Clinton and Trump faced off.
Gallup also noted that there’s a link between the U.S. electorate’s voting enthusiasm and whether they think Trump or Biden would be a good fit for office. More than two-thirds of the respondents that said Trump or Biden would be a good fit said they were enthusiastic to vote — 69 percent to 67 percent, respectively.
Among the group that did not believe either candidate was a good choice for president, only 24 percent said they were excited to cast their ballot in November, the survey found.
The Gallup poll was conducted between March 1-20 among 1,016 adults U.S. adults. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
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